2014-03-31 - Cutscene: The Awakening - Picking up the Pieces
Jason is still wearing Bruce's workout sweats. However, he found an old backpack in his former bedroom - he has to think of it as former - to put his uniform in. He still wears the brown leather jacket over the sweats as he steals quietly into Bruce's room. He is quiet, nearly silent. The concussion is gone, his head on the mend, and the bruises will heal soon enough. Jason knows he will recover quickly; he won't need anyone to watch over him as Bruce does. He watches the seemingly sleeping Bruce, likely doped up on drugs against his will if Alfred has anything to say about it. The man in the bed stirs, as if he can feel eyes on him. Crystalline blue eyes blink open, and Bruce shifts slightly in the bed, making a slight annoyed noise as a sharp set of pains shoot through him. His eyes focus on the dark blur in his room. "...Jason." Even injured, drugged, his voice is calm, assured. "Going somewhere?" the detective asks, seeing the bag, the jacket. Jason snorts, "Idiot, you are supposed to be asleep." That didn't quite answer the question, but avoidance is as good as an answer when it comes to Jason for the most part. He shifts on his feet, glancing away from Bruce which breaks his earlier stare. "Ah." Bruce reasons out Jason's avoidance. He's silent for a short time. "Do what you must," Bruce says quietly. "Then come home." A broken record, yes. "Your room is waiting on you. Your place is here. With family." Jason makes a sound in the back of his throat. "You have a replacement and a son Bruce. The things in there are old, not who I am anymore. Time moved on." Someone else is kinda a broken record too, so no judgment permitted really. Still he then takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "I don't know, maybe I'll visit or something. If you don't try to arrest me or something equally stupid." Yes, because he totally has to make this all Bruce's fault somehow. He is silent a moment before he says, "I still stand by what I said about the Joker." He still thinks Bruce should have killed him. But the rage isn't as strong as it was before, not by a long shot. Jason...apparently let some of it go. "Replacement?" Bruce struggles to sit up, scowling, wincing. Pure force of will allows him to fight the pain and the drugs to sit and meet Jason's gaze. "Is that what you think?" He shakes his head. "I mean what I said before... going into that dark place, I would never leave. Tim isn't your replacement, Jason. No one could replace you." He grimaces. "Any more than you replaced Dick. Or Carrie replaces Tim." "When you..." he actually looks almost broken for a moment. "When you died, I fell into that dark place. Tim wasn't your replacement, Jason. He was the one who reminded me that I could not allow the Joker to /win/ by giving in to the pain of your loss. That I would betray you if I allowed your killer to make me a criminal, too." Jason struggles internally, "You aren't a criminal for killing one person that truly deserves it, that the law repeatedly fails over and over again beyond benefit of a doubt in doing justice." He sounds serious about this, as something he believes in as much as Batman believes in never killing. But, he then remembers something Alfred said. "I...I'm going to try and forgive you for that though, for," he takes another deep breath, "for not seeing things my way. And...I'll think about it." Then more pointedly, "Not that I'm planning on coming back here for real, Damian just try and assassinate me anyway." But Jason does cave in somewhat and moves closer to Bruce, "Just lay down old man," moving to gently press on one shoulder to force Bruce back to the bed. "I'm...not disappearing forever in either case. I'll," and he pauses a moment before he makes a promise, "I'll come back to Gotham. We will see each other again." Jason doesn't look directly in Bruce's eyes as hell, this is like emotional talk and neither are exactly comfortable with it. Bruce is pushed back, the morphine dragging him back under again. "...will hold you...to that. Son." And his eyes close, and his breathing slows and deepens. Jason almost snaps to not call him that! It...hurts, but he watches Bruce fall back to sleep. "Idiot." Geez, at this rate, that word is going to become an endearment from Jason! But he moves to cover Bruce up with the blankets again before he takes his leave from Bruce and the Wayne Manor without telling anyone else. He...needs to run for a bit, to feel free and try to put Joker likely still living knowing his luck behind him.